CHENNAI: “Every movie I have done so far, I had to die. So if someone comes up with a role where I don’t have to die, I am in,” said Vijay Amritraj, leaving the audience in splits. In Chennai to promote the WTA finals to be held in Singapore from October 17 to 26, the Indian tennis veteran shared a few more anecdotes before talking on the importance of the event being hosted in Asia for the second time after Doha (2008 to 2010).
“The WTA final being held in Asia is a big boost to tennis. It will be held in Singapore from 2014 to 2018. The final being held in a non-traditional country truly makes it global. It will be a heavily-loaded final and it’s great for India due to the proximity,” he said.
“We will also hopefully have an Indian representation in the form of Sania Mirza, with Cara Black in doubles. Cara and Sania pair is a very good team.”
On the current scene of Indian tennis, he said: “To me it’s a huge disappointment. This is what it wasn’t meant to be even when we were running BAT (Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy) many years ago. The players who came out of BAT played Davis Cup for us. For us, not to have a singles player in the top-20 is not a good thing for Indian tennis. We need to do whatever we can to have a top-20 player. Not someone who is trying to get into the tournament through wild cards. I am talking about someone with ability to win a tournament.”